1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a brake control device for a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been known a brake device including a master cylinder which generates a basic fluid pressure (master cylinder fluid pressure) according to an operation to a brake pedal by a driver, a hydraulic pump which generates a differential pressure generation fluid pressure to generate a differential pressure (a linear valve differential pressure) to be added to the basic fluid pressure, a pressure regulating valve (normally open linear electromagnetic valve) which regulates the differential pressure using the differential pressure generation fluid pressure, and a friction brake mechanism which applies a wheel cylinder fluid pressure, obtained by adding the differential pressure to the basic fluid pressure, to a wheel cylinder, thereby generating a friction braking force according to the wheel cylinder fluid pressure (for example, see JP-A-2007-276500).
In the brake device disclosed in JP-A-2007-276500, in order to reduce the load of the linear electromagnetic valve, the wheel cylinder fluid pressure is limited to “the minimum fluid pressure necessary for maintaining a vehicle in a stopped state on a sloping road” when the vehicle is in a stopped state.
Meanwhile, in the above brake device, when the vehicle is in a stopped state, the differential pressure is always maintained at a value larger than 0 while the driver is operating the brake pedal. In other words, the liner electromagnetic valve is always driven. Therefore, in terms of durability of the linear electromagnetic valve, there is a room for improvement in that brake device.